Can I have non Rest styled Methods in web api? - asp.net-web-api

Question

My question specifically is if i can support something like this
public class SomeTestController : ApiController
{
[System.Web.Http.AcceptVerbs("GET")]
public SomeInfo GetSomeBlah(int a, int b)
{
return new SomeInfo
{
Name = string.Format("GetSomeBlah - {0}", a),
CompanyID = b.ToString()
};
}
[System.Web.Http.AcceptVerbs("GET")]
public SomeInfo GetSomeBlah1(int a, int b)
{
return new SomeInfo
{
Name = string.Format("GetSomeBlah1 - {0}", a),
CompanyID = b.ToString()
};
}
}
I tried to add the following route
config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
name: "DefaultApi4",
routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{action}",
defaults: new {action = RouteParameter.Optional}
);
Edit: 4/7/15
I forgot to mention it should also work with rest styled methods.

Answer 1

Not sure why you are trying to do this, it sounds like you have misunderstood how routing works - Have you seen these tutorials on Routing and how ASP.net maps routes?
From point 3b below this means that if you name your input varibles more meaningfully, the framework will be able to map on the name and type coming in from the route as to which method to pick i.e. getSomeBlah or GetSomeBlack1
Summary for others,
1). Create a list of all actions on the controller that match the HTTP request method.
2). If the route dictionary has an "action" entry, remove actions whose name does not match this value.
3). Try to match action parameters to the URI, as follows:
a). For each action, get a list of the parameters that are a simple type, where the binding gets the parameter from the URI. Exclude optional parameters.
b). From this list, try to find a match for each parameter name, either in the route dictionary or in the URI query string. Matches are case insensitive and do not depend on the parameter order.
c). Select an action where every parameter in the list has a match in the URI.
d). If more that one action meets these criteria, pick the one with the most parameter matches.
4). Ignore actions with the [NonAction] attribute.

Answer 2

That will work if you remove the default route. I also indicated where the parameters are from.
Specify the input is from the URL:
public SomeInfo GetSomeBlah([FromUri] int a, [FromUri] int b)
Comment or remove this:
config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
name: "DefaultApi",
routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional }
);
Test URL:
http://localhost:64719/api/Values/GetSomeBlah?a=1&b=2
Response:
<ValuesController.SomeInfo xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/SampleMVC.Controllers"> <CompanyID>2</CompanyID><Name>GetSomeBlah - 1</Name> </ValuesController.SomeInfo>

Answer 3

configure it like this:
config.Routes.MapHttpRoute("DefaultApi2",
"apiws/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
new { id = RouteParameter.Optional });
config.Routes.MapHttpRoute("DefaultApi",
"apiws/{controller}/{id}",
new { id = RouteParameter.Optional });
this works for both rest style and non-rest styles apis.
Note that the sequence of the two statements matters.

Answer 4

I managed to get it to work with the following code
config.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();
config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
name: "DefaultApi",
routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional }
);
and Attribute routing.
[RoutePrefix("api/someother")]
public class SomeOtherController : ApiController
{
// GET: api/SomeOther
public IEnumerable<string> Get()
{
return new string[] { "value1", "value2" };
}
// GET: api/SomeOther/5
public string Get(int id)
{
return "value";
}
// POST: api/SomeOther
public void Post([FromBody]string value)
{
}
// PUT: api/SomeOther/5
public void Put(int id, [FromBody]string value)
{
}
[System.Web.Http.HttpGet()]
[System.Web.Http.Route("Findsomething2")]
public CompanyInfo Findsomething2(int id, int b)
{
return new CompanyInfo
{
CompanyID = b.ToString(),
Name = id.ToString() + " 2"
};
}
// DELETE: api/SomeOther/5
public void Delete(int id)
{
}
}